With the ever increasing population of dogs in urban areas the problem of dog feces littering sidewalks and other public areas has increased to alarming proportions. Municipal authorities have sought to enforce ordinances requiring "curbing your dog" with a generally universal lack of success. Dog owners are faced with the problem of finding and using very limited areas where they may walk their pet and must be on the alert to curb the dog at the appropriate time. There is a lack of any convenient, inexpensive, and aesthetically acceptable means for collecting and disposing of the animal's feces in a manner which will encourage the practice of cleaning up after the animal. Up until now there has not been an inexpensive, uncomplicated and effective device available that can be used in a sanitary manner to easily pick up dog feces and dispose of it with minimal inconvenience on the part of the dog owner.
Various attempts have been made in the past to provide a device of this sort with varying degrees of success. An example of one such approach is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,740,086 to Rossitto which concerns a plastic container mounted on the end of a handle. The container comprises a downwardly facing cavity with ribs in it. The downwardly facing end of the container is pressed against the feces to engage a rib pattern of the container and a snap cover placed over the container end. The closed container is then disengaged from the handle by sliding a collar mounted slidably on the handle to force the container from the end of the handle, the container having been held in place by a tubular extension from the top of the container onto the handle. In this case, the whole molded container must be disposed of after each use. In order to disengage the container the slide ring must be operated by hand, thus requiring the user to risk contact with the fecal matter when disengaging the disposable container.
The same general approach is utilized in the sanitary collector of U.S. Pat. No. 3,718,358 to Ayers, wherein the container at the base of the handle is provided with vanes which serve to collect the feces when the device is rotated about the axis of the vertical handle. In this case, the collecting container is disposably secured at the base of the handle by a press-on slot and bar arrangement. A frictionally secured molded cover for the open-end of the collecting container is also provided. The utilization of this device is extremely awkward, requiring a twirling action on the part of the user, and except for the handle, the whole structure must be disposed of after each use.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,659,891 to Pettenon a collecting device which is utilized for refuse that conceivably could include feces comprises a handle having a tubular element secured to the bottom thereof with the longitudinal axis of the tubular element being parallel to the ground. The tubular element in effect serves as a frame for holding an open plastic bag. The bag with the open end face thereof is simply moved across the ground, the refuse slid into it and the bag is removed from the frame and disposed of when full. In this case, the user must come into direct hand contact with the disposable bag. The effectiveness of the device for picking up animal feces would be extremely limited.